The present invention relates to apparatus and process for manipulating displayed objects between display screens where there is a physical discontinuity between the screens but there is not a corresponding input interface continuous across the displays. More particularly, the displays are discontinuous touch-screens.
Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) are microprocessor-based computers that emphasize their small size and personal information management capabilities. Conventional PDAs utilize a single screen which is touch sensitive to permit input functions. One screen is usually provided, the small size of which results in a limited input and output-working surface. Multiple screens can increase the user""s effective, or virtual, screen real estate.
Electronic books are known to provide multiple screens (U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,888 to Lebby et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,102 to Kuno et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,665 to Tsuchiya). Multiple screens are known which can display a single virtual (or linked) image (Kuno). In U.S. Pat. No. 5,579,481 to Drerup, networked computers use a wireless stylus and standard CRT screens to enable files to be moved from one networked computer to the other through application of the stylus to the screen. The stylus has an identifier and when applied to screen A, the selected file is associated with the unique ID of the stylus. Later, if the stylus is applied to a second screen B, the computer for screen B recognizes the ID of the stylus, remembers the file associated with it and then retrieves the file through the network from the computer associated with screen A.
Note however, that this approach to maintaining continuity is not feasible for Personal Digital Assistants that have multiple and discrete touch-screens and use a stylus, pen or even a finger.
As described in greater detail below, known input devices include touch-screens, touch-pads and digitizers. All use basically the same grid construction to sense the co-ordinates of the user""s input through a pointing device, be it a stylus or fingertip.
Touch-screen displays have been introduced and widely used due to their intuitive interface and low-cost. Computers with touch-screen displays regard the operator""s fingers or a hand-held stylus as the pointing device that manipulates the touch-screen""s display""s surface.
Computers with multi-displays are known where the nature of the application requires greater screen real estate (e.g., CAD applications) or the ability to have multiple entry points (e.g., machine-code debuggers). Typically these computers use standard pointing devices like a mouse or a digitizer for input. These standard pointing devices utilize a flat, continuous surface which software maps to the displays"" entire real estate.
Through software, the displays are mapped either to a single virtual desktop or to multiple desktops. The pointing device moves continuously through the entire virtual desktop. Using a display presented in multiple discontinuous-display surfaces, and using a continuous pointing device surface which is mapped to the entire display, users can drag, transfer and manipulate objects across the multiple displays because the pointing device itself never crosses a discontinuity in the input surface. An example includes a digitizing pad linked to multiple drafting station screens.
Multiple screens, which are capable of displaying a single virtual image, and which also utilize touch-screen input, are not known to the applicants. There is a complexity in building intuitive user interfaces if the displays are mapped to a single virtual desktop and the user needs to move and manipulate objects across the multiple displays. This complexity results from the fact that there is a physical discontinuity in the xe2x80x98pointing device surfacesxe2x80x99 requiring a lifting of the stylus when moving from screen to screen. This is further complicated in the situation where, in graphical user interfaces (GUI), it is common to select an object (e.g. an icon representing a file, a text or graphic clip, etc.) and drag it to a specific location on the screen (e.g. a xe2x80x9ctrashbinxe2x80x9d icon for deleting the file object).
With the conventional single, continuous screen, which doubles as an input surface, a user may easily identify or select the object by touching it with a pointing implement or device. Then in a continuous movement the user may drag the object across the surface of the display (maintaining contact between screen and the pointing device) and release the object once there, such as by lifting the pointing device. However, as stated, with foldable multiple screens, it is currently necessary to use individual screens separated by a physical discontinuity therebetween. Thus, one cannot maintain this continuous movement of the stylus without losing contact between the screen and stylus and accordingly release or lose the object when crossing the discontinuity.
Apparatus and process are provided which overcome the limitations of touch-screens and pointer-based object drag when faced with a screen discontinuity. A variety of preferred embodiments are disclosed herein, all of which have the user selecting an object which causes it to be stored in a buffer and, without interacting with the target screen, triggers a manipulation from a source screen to the target screen so that the buffer contents are released there.
In the preferred embodiments, a pointer is used to drag the selected object and remain continuously on the source screen while also effecting transfer to the target screen. The pointer is monitored: to evaluate when an object was last selected (for employing a countdown timer), to determine its movement (for establishing its velocity or for performing predetermined gesture); or to determine its coordinates (for impinging a hot switch or a boundary). For more fluid manipulation preferred by some users, a combination of eye tracking and voice recognition can be used to identify the active screen, to select an object or set a cut-copy flag.
Accordingly in a broad aspect, a process for manipulating a first object between discontinuous source and target screens of a single virtual display of a computer is provided. The first object is being displayed on the source screen and is known in the virtual display by unique parameters. The novel process comprises the steps of:
(a) selecting the first object from the source screen;
(b) storing the first object""s parameters in a buffer when it is selected;
(c) performing a source screen manipulation of the first object for transferring it from the source screen to the target screen; and
(d) releasing the first object""s parameters from the buffer for display of the transferred first object to the target screen.
Preferably, the source screen is a touch-screen and the on-screen manipulation comprises latching the object in a buffer when selected or dragging the object to a source screen-located hot zone. More preferably, the hot zone is a specialized icon or a screen boundary. Yet another preferred manipulation is dragging the object in a predetermined gesture or dragging the object above a pre-determined threshold velocity. The velocity techniques are preferably incorporated into the gesture and boundary steps for validation of the user""s intent.
The above process is achieved using a novel combination of apparatus comprising a pointer for selecting the first object on the source screen, a computer memory buffer for storing the first object""s parameters when it is selected and manipulation means or a trigger, preferably a latch timer, hot zone, velocity or boundary contact determination, associated with the source screen which, when activated by the user, manipulate the first object from the source screen to the target screen; and finally a release means, preferably automatic with the manipulation trigger for releasing the first object""s parameters from the buffer for display of the first object on the target screen. The apparatus preferably includes flags which are set to determine if a cut or copy action has been selected, so that the object can be deleted from the source screen if a cut flag was set.
In another preferred apparatus aspect, a wireless stylus is provided as a pointer. The status of buttons on the pointer are relayed to the computer and can ensure that the object parameters are latched in the buffer despite a lifting of the pointer to cross the discontinuity. In yet another preferred aspect, eye-tracking and voice recognition can be incorporated to assist in object selection and drag across a discontinuity.